Donald Trump is on his way to start his first foreign trip as commander in chief, but two stories linking the president back to Russia have broke at the same time. While Trump continues to deny any link to the Kremlin, new information continues to keep the story alive.

Trump and Russia

For a year and a half on the campaign trail, Donald Trump was forced to push back at the allegations that he was in cahoots with Russia. Despite his denial, Trump raised speculation by refusing to release his tax returns, praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, and by dealing with several advisers and associates, past and present, getting caught communicating with officials from Russia.

Trump was able to weather the storm of criticism and controversy during the 2016 election by defeating Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in an upset victory, but the pressure surrounding the scandal has only increased since his inauguration. Over the last week, multiple reports have caused chaos in the White House, as Trump was revealed to have shared classified information with Russia, in addition to the controversy surrounding his firing of James Comey. According reports in both the New York Times and the Washington Post on May 19, Trump's headache over the Kremlin just got worse.

According to the report in the New York Times on Friday, Donald Trump bad mouthed James Comey while speaking to the Russians earlier this month.

"I just fired the head of the F.B.I.," Trump told two high-ranking Kremlin officials, before adding, "He was crazy, a real nut job." "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off," Trump was quoted as saying in a document provided to the New York Times, while insisting that he was "not under investigation."

In an additional report released by the Washington Post, the probe into Russia's election interference just took another turn.

The paper notes that a "senior White House adviser" who is "close to the president" is now being considered a "significant Person Of Interest" in regards to the current Russian investigation. The news comes just days after it was announced that former FBI Director Robert Mueller would oversee the investigation as a special counsel.

Moving forward

Though news continues to break on an almost daily basis dealing with issue at hand, Donald Trump has been defiant in his stance that he has never worked with Russia, and that it is all a "witch hunt" by his political opponents and the media. It's unknown how the investigation will end up, but Trump's current approval rating of under 40 percent doesn't have the president in good standing with the American people.
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